'Too Old' A Rerun Of Craft Story

March 19, 1988|By Amy Linn, KNT News Service

NEW YORK — Christine Craft, 43, is back in the media spotlight, touting an old book with a new name, a book she wrote shortly after the celebrated trials over her 1981 firing as co-anchor at a Kansas City, Mo., television station for being ''too old, too ugly and not deferential to men.''

Those were the words from one of her bosses at KMBC-TV, and they later became the bullets in Craft's smoking legal gun. Then 36, she marched straight to court, contending that her employer, Metromedia Inc., had defrauded her and accusing the company of sexual discrimination. Two jury trials on the matter ended in Craft's favor, but the blond anchorwoman from California lost the case on appeal.

The lawsuits, book completion and media fanfare took place between 1981 and 1986. But now Craft's book has been reissued, a new chapter added, and the words are back as the new title: Too Old, Too Ugly and Not Deferential to Men. Craft is once again in national view. And she says she is still worried about the level of intelligence in broadcast land.

''Kathleen Sullivan co-host of CBS' This Morning has never done any field reporting in her life. Ever. Ever. I think it's disturbing,'' said Craft recently.

''The real news correspondents, the ones who cover rape, murder and mayhem, aren't getting the anchor jobs'' said Craft. And smart women should win TV news jobs, she said. ''Not the ones who just look the part. Not the ones who just have the illusion of credibility.''

If the networks simply want a pretty face, then ''just call them newsreaders. Don't call them credible news people.''

If Craft is talking tough, she says it's not because she's bitter. Immediately after being fired, she took a job at a Santa Barbara, Calif., TV station where she had previously worked. She later accepted a news job at KRBK-TV, a small UHF station in Sacramento, Calif. There, she acts as news director, co-anchor and managing editor of a nightly news broadcast.

What is a nightmare, Craft says, is the fact that women on TV newscasts are still bypassed for brains and promoted for beauty.

That a producer like the character played by Holly Hunter in the movie Broadcast News would never make it in the business because she cried too much. That TV news consultants promote ''telecasting to the lowest common denominator because they are afraid that if they present a complex story, the public will turn the dial.''